Big investors shy away from bulk deals in '08

Bearish conditions in the stock market have made corporate, FIIs and other big investors to shy away from bulk and block deals, which involve transaction of large chunks of shares of a company, leading to a nearly 30 per cent fall in trading volumes through such deals in 2008.

Analysts believe that High Networth Individuals (HNIs), Foreign Institutional Investors and other big corporate investors staying away from large-sized deals last year, lead the trading volume to take a dip.

"Drop in the block and bulk deals shows that the HNIs and FIIs are preferring to stay away from the market," Nexgen Capital Equity Head Jagannadham Thunuguntla said.

The combined trading volumes of bulk and block deals on Bombay and National stock exchanges have plunged 27 per cent, representing a decline of Rs 1,57,000 crore.

The bulk transactions fell 29 per cent to Rs 1,36,000 crore in 2008, while the block deals declined 11 per cent to Rs 21,132 crore, in value terms.

A block deal, refers to a trade with a minimum quantity of five lakh shares or minimum value of Rs 5 crore executed through a single transaction window on the bourse.

Whereas, a bulk deal involves the transaction in a scrip where the total quantity bought or sold is more than 0.5 per cent of the entire outstanding shares of the listed entity.